Chad Le Clos is looking to brawl with his rivals in Tokyo

Swimming star Chad Le Clos is looking to turn his Olympic swimming races into street fights.

SA's most decorated Olympian, with four medals, readily admits his chief rivals at the Tokyo Games have more swimming talent than he does, but his advantage is scrapping over the final length.

On paper Le Clos shouldn't stand a chance in Japan; he's ranked 21st in the world this year in the 200m butterfly, 41st in the 100m 'fly and 98th in the 200m freestyle.

But the only thing that counts is what happens in the pool, which Le Clos treats like a boxing ring or a MMA cage.

"I've never really stood on the block and said I'm the best guy," said Le Clos, who has been training with Hungarian superstar Katinka Hosszú in Budapest for the past few weeks.

"I know I can outswim [these] guys, I can outrace [these] guys. But I don't think I'm the most talented on the block."

If time trials are the measurement, where swimmers race against the clock and not each other, then Le Clos knows he will never beat the likes of American Caeleb Dressel or Kristof Milak of Hungary, the 100m and 200m butterfly world champions and world record holders.

But if he can lure them into a phone booth he knows it'll be a different story. "If we're in a race, put me in lane four, five, next to them, a bit of pressure, we'll see what happens then.

"We'll make it a dogfight, more my style, and then we'll see what happens. I'm not saying I'm going to win or medal, I'm saying I understand where my strengths are."

Le Clos has invariably performed above his world rankings at the Olympics. He went into Rio 2016 lying 12th in the 100m 'fly and 30th in the 200m freestyle, but took silver medals in both events.

At London 2012 he was seventh in the 200m 'fly when he downed American legend Michael Phelps to take gold. He was 35th in the 100m 'fly and claimed a silver.

Ironically, the only time he matched his ranking was in the 200m butterfly in 2016, when he ended fourth.

Before each Olympics Le Clos has competed in Europe, and his times over the past month or so suggest he is where he needs to be ahead of Tokyo.

In 2012 he was doing 1min 55.46sec for the 200m fly and 52.43 for the 100m, and this year he's on 1:55.63 and 51.87.

"I'd say I feel a lot more confident in the 200 than the 100," said Le Clos. "The last month has been great, working with my coach, James [Gibson].

"I've raced quite a bit and every meet it has got a bit better. The 200 I've put a lot of work in. I've done some crazy mileage and it's not the last run in the 200 for me."

He wants to keep the event going at least until next year to bid for a fourth straight Commonwealth Games 200m butterfly crown.

Europe has also been an eye-opener for him. "I've been here a month now and seen how things have opened up. I went to a football match [the Euro contest between Hungary and Portugal] with Katinka and didn't wear a mask the whole day. There were 60,000 people at the stadium."

Before that Le Clos had trained in SA for six months and, with Kings Park being in a state of disrepair, battled to get training time in 50m pools in the Durban area.

"At home you're struggling for training and you're struggling to just find a long-course [Olympic-sized 50m] pool for six months and then you come to Hungary, there's literally six pools within 16km of each other. Six 50m indoor quality facilities."

During the Mare Nostrum series Hosszú invited him to train with her in Budapest.

At 29 Le Clos is happy to take on a mentorship role to younger swimmers on the SA team if they require, though he insists the one person who doesn't need his input is Tatjana Schoenmaker, who is competing in the 100m and 200m breaststroke.

"Tatjana doesn't need any advice from me. She's going so well I've got her down for two golds. I locked that in last year.

"She's on her way to doing great things. I think she's going to be on fire in the next few weeks."

Le Clos also praised his younger teammates, particularly Matthew Sates, Ethan du Preez and 17-year-old Pieter Coetzé.

"Those three guys have really got a big future. I think Matt is probably the most versatile, he can do a lot of things from the 400m individual medley to the 100m freestyle."

The future of SA swimming is bright, says Le Clos, though right now he has no intention of hanging up his costume.